1915 Scottish valuation roll - which Glasgow flat?

[WilliamRev]

I'm trying to find the exact flat in Glasgow where my great-grandparents were living during WW1, and where my grandfather (in avatar) was brought up. It was at 359 West Princess Street, which is a single front door with 8 flats/tenements, as can be seen in my 2012 photo.

The valuation roll has my great-grandfather, William J. Revels, listed 5th out of 8 names - can someone tell me exactly which one they lived in? How do such lists work? Bottom to top, or top to bottom, and then left to right? Below is a detail of the 1925 valuation roll, which is fairly similar to the 1915 one (for technical reasons I am having trouble posting the 1915 one).

Thanks for your help

William

Edit: P.S. If any Glasgow in WW1 enthusiasts find this address vaguely familiar, it is because it is a few doors down from the Drill Hall of the 5th Scottish Rifles.

[ss002d6252]

The property is still divided in to 8 flats.

http://www.saa.gov.uk/search.php?SEARCHED=1&ST=&SEARCH_TERM=G4+9EZ&ASSESSOR_ID=glasgow&SEARCH_TABLE=council_tax&x=5&y=13#results

Craig

[rolt968]

This is a bit tricky. While the flats were rented, I suspect that the only record of which flat was which would be in the factor's (owner's agent's) records. If they were sold off individually a record called a sasine of the transfer is very detailed about which flat is which (2nd floor west, etc.)

I suspect that in this case the order is not top to bottom or vice versa. Since there were only eight flats, they include both the front to back of the building and must have been more or less the same size. The variation in valuation might therefore be related to the desirability of their location. I suspect that the lowest valuations are on the top floor, but I'm not sure about the rest. The relative valuations may have stayed the same until the end of the rates in the 1970s. It might be worth looking at the later valuations which might be in the Mitchell Library in Glasgow, to see if there is any indication then.

Unfortunately the Glasgow Post Office directories also list all the tenants without giving any order. It would be worth looking at the 1911 census, but again there will probably be no indication of the order of the tenants.

R.

[mysie]

Hi might be talking rubbish but what about old Election voters rolls, i know that a lot of places have them kept stored away .

Mary.

[WilliamRev]

Thanks for all the help and suggestions so far; I can see that there may not be the single simple solution that I had hoped for!

I think that I have established that ground floor tenements, being slightly smaller than the others because of the space taken by the "close" (entrance hall), were cheaper, as were the top ones (more stairs? colder?). So at least I seem to have established that the Revels family lived in one of the middle ones.

William

[Tom Lang]

William,

As you enter the 'close' on the 'ground' floor, the order of numbering is from left to right.

Sometimes there are 2, or 3 or more 'flats' on each floor.

So always work from left to right, and from the 'ground' up, e.g.

G/1, G/2, ...

1/1, 1/2, ...

2/1, 2/2, ...

3/1, 3/2, ...

Other methods will use the notation G/L, G/R (and G/C (for Centre) or G/M (for Middle) where there were more than 2 flats).

From the Valuation Roll you provided, I would suggest that your relative lived in 2/1 (or 2/Left).

Looking at the photo, that would be the left side, 2 up.

Hope this helps.

Tom.

[WilliamRev]

Tom

That makes perfect sense, and is a huge help - many thanks!

William